Thursday, December 13, 2012

Tool #11 - Self Assessing and Reflecting

1.What are your favorite tools you now have in your personal technology toolbox? Briefly describe a particular activity that you will plan for your students using at least one of these new tools.

Google Docs and Flashcard+ are great tools I plan on using regularly. Creating flashcards for vocabulary practice has been very helpful for my students. I plan to combine Google Docs with Dropbox for our next project. Google Docs greatly enhanced collaborative learning and growth during our "Mind Maps" project.

2. How have you transformed your thinking about the learning that will take place in your classroom? How has your vision for your classroom changed? Are you going to need to make any changes to your classroom to accommodate the 21st Century learner?My thinking has not been transformed, but reenforced. Technology makes learning fresh and exciting. Students become more engaged and more motivated when I hand them an I-pad. My vision has changed in the sense that we can go beyond our classroom. I have shown my students videos of other students, outside of Texas, who are making presentations of units that we study. It is fun to see that we have the so much in common. It would be fun to Skype one of these classrooms.

3. Were there any unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?

I was surprised how much we are already using in my classroom and I was excited to learn about new sites. I would love to have students to create an Animoto project of their favorite unit for review at the end of the year.